The cancellation of Edinburgh Community High School’s homecoming over a formal complaint of “harassment” following allegations of racial slurs and death threats to a football player should be a wakeup call not only to the sports local community but to the community at large.
It’s 2025 and we’re still responding to this kind of offensive and unacceptable behavior, in this case allegedly by high school football players against a teammate who happens to be Black.
The Sept. 18 complaint filed involves a Snapchat video of two students saying making a death threat using a racial slur. Reporters confirmed one of the students in the video is an Edinburgh football player. The students are presumed to be minors.
James Halik, interim superintendent for Edinburgh Community School Corp., said a formal complaint on a “harassment incident” was filed, and officials are investigating the situation.
“There is zero tolerance of any harassment,” Halik said.
That may be true, but there was evidently tolerance for this type of behavior before it was reported to school officials, behavior that should have been immediately handled by the coaching staff and parents by handing out severe consequences.
The school corporation has immediately clamped down on further information about the incident, saying, “Until the investigation is completed because of FERPA, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, we cannot say anything further,” according to the interim superintendent.
The mother of the teen who was harassed alleges that what started as repeated racial slurs and threats from teammates escalated to the point of physical assault.
On Aug. 15, she said a teammate allegedly poured water down her son’s shirt. Since this was his first time on the football team, she said he thought this was a playful interaction.
When her son responded later by pouring water on the teammate’s head, but another teammate reportedly shoved him. Her son reportedly defended himself with one shove before backing away, the first physical assault linked to the harassment, according to the mother.
The following day, the mother said her son went to Principal Kevin Rockey about his teammates using a racial slur and the altercation that occurred, which Rockey said he would take care of it.
In the following days, the mother alleges retaliation followed. Her son received a text warning “he would be jumped” and then the video of the two students saying the death threat and racial slur was posted in a football group chat on Snapchat, she alleged.
The mother reported the video to Rockey and requested police involvement. She said the principal reportedly admitted at the time he “did not know how to handle this type of matter.”
The mother says Edinburgh schools allegedly suspended the students involved in the racial harassment for 10 days, while her son was “isolated, blamed and told he could study from home if unsafe.”
With the community aware of the situation by that point, the mother alleges her son was blamed by students for homecoming being canceled.
For Edinburgh schools, this is not a good look. Edinburgh students and parents should be ashamed of themselves for blaming the victim in this case. It is the students who were suspended who should be the ones blamed.
The mother of the victim says that instead of protecting her son, the administration minimized the severity of the threat. Now, her concerns extend beyond the school to the community at large well, she said.
She is correct in this assertion.
“This is about whether schools will tolerate racism, harassment and threats of violence while punishing victims instead of protecting them,” she said.
Will Edinburgh schools and the community do the right thing in responding to this incident?
We will be watching to see the response, and whether the punishment for those making death threats and racial slurs fits the seriousness of the allegations that have been made.
